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Description

Every town has that house that outdoes itself at Christmas. Legendary for miles around, it is the place to see dazzling holiday decorating of the eye-popping, traffic-stopping sort. This flickering showcase bedecked with tens of thousands of lights is hard to resist—and ignore—as often every square inch is caked in Christmas, from snowmen to elves, carousels to candy canes. But who lives in that house—and houses like it around the country? And what compels this Christmas-decorating fervor?

Author Bruce Littlefield finds the answers on his quest to locate the most spectacular Christmas displays across America. His adventures take him to the front lawns and doors of people in cities and towns from coast to coast who have a flair and fanaticism for doing Christmas right—whose goal is giving the world an illuminated, inflated, decorated gift. Littlefield shares his firsthand encounters with people for whom Christmas is a year-round labor of love—the people who spend mind-boggling amounts of time and money transforming their houses and yards, and even those of the neighbors, into unique Christmas fantasylands that are spectacles of individual expression and must-see destinations for the rest of us.

These portraits of Christmas range from tacky to refined, outlandish to poignant—and the reasons they are created vary, too—but all are dazzling in their own ways, and the passionate people who dream them up have entertaining stories and anecdotes to tell that will make this Christmas the brightest, merriest, happiest Christmas ever. Just follow the lights.

About the Author

Bruce Littlefield has written books on a spectrum of American topics from garage sales to Airstreams to Christmas and has co-authored with many high-profile names including Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran, Fox News's Lis Wiehl, and civil rights advocate Zach Wahls. He appears on the Today Show, The View, and the Early Show as a lifestyle expert. The New York Times calls him a "lifestyle authority." We all know that's just shorthand for a know-it-all housewife. He divides his time between New York City and Edgewater Farm, a former bungalow colony in the Catskills.

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Brookline Booksmith Book Club

The Brookline Booksmith Book Club has been sharing great books for 10 years. It normally meets on the 2nd Monday of each month, at 7:30 pm in our Writer's and Reader's Room. No need to sign up, just show up.